The Worst of Road Signs

[agentsteel53]

mmm... drooping penis shield.

speaking of drooping penises, there are some guide signs on 441 for Florida's Turnpike that are just as flaccid.  Alex, got any photos offhand?

[kurumi]

FL Negative 2, nice.

I'm surprised there isn't a -1 somewhere. Just think of that gut-wrenching horrible pun: Route Negative One.

"i" don't get it

[WillWeaverRVA]

A strange "Frankensign" has appeared on I-64 WB, near the ramp to I-95 NB. There had previously been a damaged overhead a this location:



However, a few weeks later a truck hit the sign and knocked it down. Instead of re-mounting it, VDOT mounted it onto two wood posts to the left of the roadway. So now we have an overhead on two wood posts, slowly falling forward under its own weight. Then VDOT finally addressed the fact that some of the sign was missing, so they patched it...

...but the patch is in Clearview when the rest of the sign isn't! They literally covered ONLY the blank part of the sign with a bright Clearview patch, rather than replace the sign or cover the whole sign over with decals. I don't have a picture of this monstrosity (yet), but the sign now looks like this:

(spaces added for emphasis)

(I-95 shield) N O R TH
W a s h i n g ton
E X I T   O NLY

I'll post a picture later today.

[joseph1723]

A few from Ontario:

Strange FHWA, Clearview, and Helvetica sign:


Strange bolded font:


Bolded FHWA:


Arial Shields:


Misshapen ON crowns and compressed series EM:

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

There was once to be an access road here. Sometime in the 1980s (back when the Columbus Convention Center was still called the Ohio Center) it was decided that the access road was going to be closed to the general public. According to my notes this photo was taken in 2004. Last time I drove by there (this year) the sign has been replaced.

[Ian]

The CR shield on the left lacks the county name as well as "COUNTY" written on the bottom:


The Atlantic City Expressway also has a lot of horrible signs...

[WillWeaverRVA]

Behold...Frankensign!

[architect77]

I'm sorry, but this isn't an overhead, it's stupid looking...

and this just ugly...

[Scott5114]

Behold...Frankensign!

What the hell were they thinking?!

[WNYroadgeek]

[WillWeaverRVA]

What the hell were they thinking?!

If you go back up to my original post on the sign, it's a combination of laziness, bad luck, and lack of funds.

The nearby Exit 186 gore point sign is also a frequent victim of people hitting it trying to cut across onto the I-195 SB ramp. Instead of moving it to a safer location or building guardrails to block this movement, they just keep putting the sign back up in the same place again and again. It's been knocked down at least 10 times since it was installed in February!

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

Speaking of Frankenstein. This little off color exit tab existed on I-270 NB in the years between construction of the Easton exit and the new Oh 161 exit. Needless to say, this sign doesn't exist anymore

Another makeshift add-on job. Besides being out of place, the numbers aren't even the same size.  (This sign was replaced shortly after I had posted the photo)

No matter how it's spelled...don't do it. (In front of the Whetstone Branch of Columbus's public library system)

One of two infamous Oh 161 circle shield in Worthington. Both were mercifully replaced in the last 5 years or so.

An ugly interstate shield near Polaris. If it hasn't been replaced before, it will be replaced while this intersection is being widened (now).

After the state was truncated, it became a county route.

[cu2010]

Behold...Frankensign!

They couldn't at least make the patch the same size as the rest of the sign? EPIC FAIL.

[Tarkus]

Arial font signs are a pet peeve of mine.

This one's a classic monstrosity in Eugene, Oregon . . .


And then there's the Yamhill County, Oregon Department of Public Works, who takes ugly to a new standard, with their mutant Arial speed limit signs.  Not only is the font ugly, but the spacing and proportions are completely out of whack.





-Alex (Tarkus)

[Bickendan]

The only thing going for those speed limit signs is the omitted 'limit'.

[Roadgeek Adam]

What the hell were they thinking?!

If you go back up to my original post on the sign, it's a combination of laziness, bad luck, and lack of funds.

The nearby Exit 186 gore point sign is also a frequent victim of people hitting it trying to cut across onto the I-195 SB ramp. Instead of moving it to a safer location or building guardrails to block this movement, they just keep putting the sign back up in the same place again and again. It's been knocked down at least 10 times since it was installed in February!

If you look at the original photo, the setting for the sign when it was still an overhead was pretty bad in shape. I would consider the fact that they didn't strap it on that well a situation of great DOT work. Then again, who can beat the Pennsylvanians?

[codyg1985]

I'm sorry, but this isn't an overhead, it's stupid looking...

I believe they do those butterfly gantries to improve visibility of the signs if you are in the middle or left lanes and there's a truck in the right lane blocking view of the sign.

[Scott5114]

Arial font signs are a pet peeve of mine.

[Brandon]

Behold...Frankensign!

Damn!  Not only is the patch just terrible, but the exit number appears to be a replacement as well.

[Alex]

Wacky Alabama shields really take the cake. 

[agentsteel53]

that 98 ain't all that much better.  I nominate everything from the 1970 federal specifications as "the worst of road signs" 

[WillWeaverRVA]

Behold...Frankensign!

Damn!  Not only is the patch just terrible, but the exit number appears to be a replacement as well.

The exit number patch has been there since the exits were renumbered in 1992, though. The tabs need to be replaced entirely, because the storms we had earlier this year blew off some of the patches (exit 75 on I-95 NB became exit 11 temporarily).

[codyg1985]

Wacky Alabama shields really take the cake. 

It looks like they chopped Alabama off at around Montgomery and kept everything south of it.

[Brandon]

Wacky Alabama shields really take the cake. 

It looks like they chopped Alabama off at around Montgomery and kept everything south of it.

It's a great example of why state-shaped shields don't work in all cases.  Either keep the state shape on the shield somewhat like it is on the ground, or don't bother.

[agentsteel53]

the old Alabama state shield did have the correct outline until 1961.



of course, to meet modern standards, you'd need either very narrow numbers, or to cut two "slots" in the side to fit wider numbers, like Illinois.



an Alabama outline with appropriate segments cut away would look very nice.  Florida still uses that style of shield, even though the 1961 specification called for high-contrast shields (black background).